All I Really Need to Know (About participating in a 5K) I learned at Weight Watchers...

Life really overlaps, and sometimes the best lessons we learn about one thing are learned at another. If you've ever been to a WW meeting, I hope you learned the lessons that will help you elsewhere in life...

All I Really Need to Know About Participating in a 5K Run/Walk I learned at Weight Watchers

1.People will cheer for you even though they do not know who you are.

2. Some people go faster than you and some people go slower; some people pass you and then you pass them. The finish line stays in the same place no matter what.

3.You can go forward or stand still; the option of going backwards is available but not attractive.

4. There will always be challenges – dealing with the circumstances is just a part of the event.

5. Starting is the most scary and exciting part.

6. Preparing is an important component. The better you feel physically and mentally, the better you will feel at the end.

7. Whatever the outcome of the race on that particular day, there is always a new outcome available in the days to come.

8. Going a distance, making a new mark, meeting a new challenge, and feeling good about yourself are all important components.

9. No matter what the outcome, tomorrow is always a new day and a new opportunity.

10. No matter what, you have to believe.

We Put on a Good Front

My adult daughter paid me a huge compliment the day she described me to someone. She said, "My Mom is the strongest person I know."

It's great to be kind and helpful, to be there in a pinch, to be the 'go-to' person when others need you. We put on a strong front, we are capable, we are willing.

But sometimes we need help: we need to cry, we need to vent, and yes, we need to be bitchy. We, in other words, are human.

So choose wisely in your circle. Have at least two people who you could go to if and when you need a friend. Do it now, before the need strikes. Find the people who are as happy to help you as you are to help them.

It just makes sense.

It's Time to Spice Up My Life!

I have certain recipes that are my "go-to's". They are tasty, safe, healthy... and sometimes boring! So this morning, I put on my workout gear with the intention of cleaning the house! (Yes, it's easier to clean in running shoes!)  As I moved a stack of old magazines, I stopped to flip through it to see if it was savable, (it was, after all, dated 1994) and there I discovered three recipes that I intend to try this weekend for my husband, Patrick, and I. (I am a vegetarian, Patrick is a carnivore.)

I have always loved Indian food, but have very seldom attempted it at home. So this old edition of Fast and Healthy Magazine (no longer published, sadly) really tipped me toward a nice challenge. This, coupled with the time to dedicate to a shopping trip, is forming the perfect storm for cooking this delectable food!

So I am presenting the recipes here: two are for the main dish and one is the secret of the spice. I hope you, too, will feel adventuresome in the near future, and you will Spice Up YOUR Life!

P.S. I made these for dinner tonight. My only regret is that I did not double the recipe so that I could have leftovers tomorrow!
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Potatoes, Peas and Carrots Dinner
Serving size: 1 ¼ cup   5 PP
Serves 2

1 Tbsp oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp finely chopped fresh gingerroot
1 cup cubed (1”) unpeeled potatoes
1 cup frozen sweet peas
1 cup diced carrots
½ cup water
1 tsp turmeric
½ tsp salt
1 tsp Garam Masala Seasoning*
Heat oil in medium saucepan over medium-high heat until hot. Add garlic; cook and stir until golden brown. Add ginger; cook and stir an additional one minute. Add potatoes, peas, carrots, water, turmeric, and salt; mix well. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer 10 to 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender, stirring occasionally. Stir in Garam Masala Seasoning. Makes 2 (1 ¼ cup) servings.
1 ¼ cups = 210 calories, 7 g protein, 31 g carbs, 7 g fiber, 8 g fat, 0 mg chol, 640 mg sodium.


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Garam Masala Seasoning

Can be purchased in the supermarket or you can make it yourself as follows:
1 ½ tsps ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp pepper
½ tsp cardamom
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Indian Chicken Curry
Serves 2   8 PP

2 tsp oil
½ cup finely chopped onion
1 small garlic clove, minced
1 medium tomato, chopped
¼ cup plain nonfat yogurt
1 ½ tsp curry powder
1 ½ tsp coriander
¼ tsp salt
1 whole skinless chicken breast (about ½ pound) cut into 1” pieces
2 – 4 TBSP water, if desired
2 cups hot cooked rice (cooked without margarine or salt)


Heat oil in medium saucepan over medium heat until hot. Add onion and garlic; cook and stir until golden brown and onion is tender. Add tomato. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover and simmer 5 to 7 minutes or until tomato is soft, stirring occasionally.
Stir in yogurt, curry powder, coriander and salt. Mix well. Add chicken; stir to coat. Cover; cook 5 to 10 minutes until chicken is tender and no longer pink. Stir in enough water for desired consistently. Serve over rice.
Per serving: 440 calories, 34 g protein, 3 g fiber, 4 g fat, 360 g sodium, 55 g carbs

You Can't Win If you Don't Buy In

Driving to work the other day, listening to the news, I heard that the Powerball lottery had risen to an insane amount of money --- millions of millions. Since I have kicked my bad habit of eating in the car, I had little to do except start to day dream about what I could do with millions of millions of dollars…

For several minutes, I mentally built my list of the things I would do with unlimited resources. I always think about traveling (which I love), and then I think about the places I would spend some time. I would bring my family together again! After that came the things I would buy: a new car (cars!), an RV… a horse or two! Oh my goodness, just think what Patrick and the kids could do with this money! Think of all of the needy projects of the world that I could contribute to… and clothes – I could buy more purses and shoes…. <sigh>

Of course your thoughts come skidding to a halt when you hear the news that someone else has won the lottery – someone else has stolen your dream! Which brings it home to you: You Could Not Win Because You Never Bought a Ticket! (In other words: You can’t win if you don’t buy in.)

Life in general is certainly a lot like winning the lottery, and it seems to apply to weight loss in particular. You can sit and think of a lot of things you would do if and when you lost weight: you’d look thinner, you’d buy new clothes, you’d get compliments, your family would be proud of you, you’d be able to walk further and your doctor would rave about it at your checkup when looking at the results of your tests… but WAIT. YOU CAN’T WIN if you don’t BUY IN.

Buying in means believing that you can get the winning ticket. It’s the first step in making the weight dream a reality!   

Garbage Can!

EXPERIMENT: Pick up something to eat... pause as you get it to your mouth... think about what you are putting in there... is it worthy?

It's a funny thing about the food we eat -- as soon as we get it chewed and swallowed, we forget about it... until it's time to track it... and even then, we rationalize it. But do we ever ANALYZE it after the fact?

Have ever caught yourself  "cleaning a plate" by eating it instead of scraping it into the garbage? Or picking up a piece of candy just because it is in the bowl as you walk by? Taking the potato salad or macaroni salad on the pot luck buffet just because Aunt Alice made it 'just for you?' Or stalking the perfect 'snack' at night, foraging and bypassing healthy foods for just the right thing to relieve your craving?

EVALUATION:  Let's start looking at the quality of our food, and that might just help the quantity!

Caution: Contents are Fragile

I meet and/or chat with lots of people every week. These smart, fun, intelligent, hard working, sharing and caring people are fabulous to be around. Therefore, when I hear some of their “background” stories, I am amazed at the ways they have overcome (and are still trying to overcome) adversities in their lives that are often caused by those closest to them.

I have asked an innocent question, like, “why do you feel that way?” and the response brings on a sudden outpouring of emotion, often tears, and a heartfelt need to explain what happened to them recently – or long ago – to instill in them a distinct feeling of inadequacy, low self esteem, or a deep-seated feeling that they will not succeed no matter how hard they try. These are the affects of things done and said to them by moms, brothers, sisters, husbands, uncles, and other family members and friends… the people who are closest to us.

You’d never know it by looking at them or having a casual conversation with them.

Just realizing that each of us carries around the remains of what has been done or said to us is a good step in overcoming our feelings that we are not ‘good enough’, ‘strong enough’, or “enough enough’. Success breeds success, and every little thing we accomplish should be celebrated to our own standards and not the expectations of others.

Feel good about you.

The poster below speaks eloquently – that Albert Einstein was a smart guy, huh. (And under- appreciated by his family!) (Many thanks to the anonymous provider of the artwork accompanying  the quote! I found it on Facebook and it was not given credit.)

I Love Great Quotes, don't you?

Switch: ON

I was walking through Kohl’s today (strolling, really) when I glanced to my left and saw a Weight Watchers member shopping. I see a lot of our members out and about, and I often just let them be so they don’t think I am stalking them. As I walked on by, I heard “Excuse me!” and when I turned around, she asked, “Are you the Weight Watchers lady?” She was happy to see me and could not wait to tell me how pleased she was with her progress on the program. She had lost nearly 25 pounds, she told me, and was looking forward to that next  25 pounds so she could get to her goal. She tugged at her pants and said, “I just bought these and they are already too big!”  Her switch was obviously “ON.”

The best part, she told me, was that a gal who worked with her had noticed and was excited about joining her at the meetings. My talkative member went on to say that she had told her friend about members who attend the meetings  and had lost over 100 pounds (the same circumstances her friend would be starting with.) Her excitement was so obvious that I noticed other shoppers giving us a glance as they passed us by.

After she had left me, I thought about that enthusiasm and it seems to reinforce something another member, Toni, told me a few years ago: the switch has to be in the ON position!

When Toni had become a lifetime member of Weight Watchers, I had asked her, “What makes it work for you?” Her thoughtful answer was:

“It’s like there is a light switch inside your head,” she said. “It is either switched ‘on’ or it is ‘off’.  I finally realized, after years of watching my weight go up and down, that I was the one who had to turn the switch on and make sure it stayed on!”

Too bad the switch is not equipped with a motion detector – wouldn’t it be nice if it went on automatically as we approached the refrigerator, the buffet line, or the bar!  

Maybe just knowing that we have it and can use it is inspiration enough! Have you looked lately? Is the switch….. ON?

You’ve Got This in the Bag (or It’s All About the Shopping Experience!)

You might take your weekly (or daily) trips to the grocery store for granted… or maybe you have come to realize that “You Can’t Eat it if You Don’t Have It”. (If that sounds familiar it is because it is the first Power Start session!) The truth is, you have to learn to make those trips work for you in terms of ‘good foods.”

Let’s try an experiment this week: I am giving you TWO (one seemed too limiting) brown paper shopping bags. Your mission (should you accept it) will be to take a stroll through the aisles of your favorite grocery store and fill those two bags with the foods that will lead most to your weight loss success (or weight maintenance success) this week.

Choose wisely! (You only get 2 bags to last you the whole week!)

Here are some hints that were suggested by the members in the meeting room this week:

Make a list, spotlighting Power Foods. (Hint: shopping the advertising circulars really helps spotlight the great deals.) Eat something before you go shopping! (Less impulse buying!) Shop the perimeter. (Most stores are laid out with the “healthy foods that spoil” on the outside edges of the store!) Take your calculator or smart phone. (You will want to know about an item before you buy it!) Shop alone! (Or take your book end!) Shop when it is not busy in the store! Don’t be tempted by the ‘impulse items’ in the checkout line! Take your cookbook along so you don’t miss a key ingredient.

How are you coming with filling up your 2 brown bags? Can you really make that happen? Of course! What will be the outcome of this mission? Weight loss success, which leads to Living the Weight Loss Dream!!

The Infamous Cauliflower Pizza Crust Pizza!

I have made this a few times now and am totally happy with it!

Cauliflower Crust Pizza
Serves 2

Ingredients:
1 cup cooked, riced cauliflower
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp crushed garlic
1/2 tsp garlic salt
olive oil (optional)
Pizza sauce, shredded cheese and your choice of toppings*

Directions:
To "Rice" the Cauliflower:
Take 1 large head of fresh cauliflower, remove stems and leaves, and chop the florets into chunks. Add to food processor and pulse until it looks like grain. Do not over-do pulse or you will puree it. (If you don't have a food processor, you can grate the whole head with a cheese grater). Place the riced cauliflower into a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 8 minutes (some microwaves are more powerful than others, so you may need to reduce this cooking time). There is no need to add water, as the natural moisture in the cauliflower is enough to cook itself.

One large head should produce approximately 3 cups of riced cauliflower. The remainder can be used to make additional pizza crusts immediately, or can be stored in the refrigerator for up to one week.

To Make the Pizza Crust:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray.
In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup cauliflower, egg and mozzarella. Add oregano, crushed garlic and garlic salt, stir. Transfer to the cookie sheet, and using your hands, pat out into a 9" round. Optional: Brush olive oil over top of mixture to help with browning.

Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes.

Remove from oven. To the crust, add sauce, toppings and cheese. Place under a broiler at high heat just until cheese is melted (approximately 3-4 minutes).

Enjoy!
*Note that toppings need to be precooked since you are only broiling for a few minutes.